Existing appointments to be honored
After thousands of appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations have been booked throughout the North Georgia Health District, it was announced last week that no new appointments will be made until health departments in the six-county region receive another shipment of vaccine.
It is not yet known exactly when the appointment-making process will resume.
Appointments that have already been made are still valid, according to a notification posted at NGHD.org.
“We will resume scheduling COVID-19 vaccination appointments as soon as we receive more vaccine beyond the doses we currently have in stock for the appointments that exist. We are also providing second shots to people who received their first dose at the health department,” confirmed the health district’s public information officer, Jennifer King.
For those who’ve already made an appointment, Gilmer’s vaccination site is still the Piedmont Community Center at 824 Industrial Boulevard, she added.
“People may also want to consult their doctor to see if they are providers of COVID-19 vaccine or click the Georgia Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Vaccine Provider Locator at DPH.Georgia.gov/Covid-Vaccine,” King noted.
As of last Friday, a total of 2,931 COVID-19 vaccinations had been administered in Gilmer County since the first shipment arrived in December.
The districtwide total for vaccinations given by health department staff in Gilmer, Pickens, Fannin, Whitfield, Murray and Cherokee counties is 24,343.
King noted that more than 61,000 calls were answered this month between the health district’s office and COVID-19 call centers.
“Before we temporarily suspended scheduling new appointments, we were answering over 5,000 calls a day. The number that really shows how busy the phone lines have been is the over 200,000 calls that hit the system this month. This includes not only the calls that actually got through, (but also) after-hours calls and hang ups,” she added.
Health departments in the North Georgia district are also discontinuing their free COVID testing program in order to dedicate personnel to the vaccination effort.
Georgia Public Health has partnered with a diagnostic lab company, Mako Medical, to provide free COVID-19 testing, but the only test sites within the North Georgia Health District are in Woodstock and Dalton.
Those locations are Woodstock First Baptist Church, 11905 Highway 92, Woodstock, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., and Edwards Park, 115 Edwards Park Entrance, Dalton, Monday- Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Preregistration is required and can be done online at Mako.exchange/splash/GAmakotesting.